Faerie Blood: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Changeling Chronicles Book 1) (25 page)

“Then act like it.”

The car pulled up outside a squat red-brick building I recognised as the local jail in mage territory. Ralph continued to mutter to himself, but stopped abruptly as Vance, and the two captives, disappeared.

I blinked. “Why bother using the car if he planned to do that?”

“Maybe he wanted you to come with him,” said Ralph, who didn’t look at all surprised. “Can’t imagine why.”

I undid my seat belt and opened the door. “I’m the one in charge of this case, faerie boy.”

“Stop calling me that!”

His shouts followed me as I marched to the building. The door swung open, but Vance wasn’t in the reception area. He’d presumably told the person at the desk I was coming, because the guy jerked his thumb at a nearby door. Through the glass window, I saw Vance in the act of throwing one of the captives into a cell.

I opened the door and joined him as he threw the second prisoner after the first, closing the cell door on them. The dimly lit corridor cast him into shadow, making him look like a menacing stranger. I shivered, telling myself it was the sudden coldness of the jail.

Vance turned to me. “Do you have anything you want me to ask them?”

“What, apart from how they took those kids into Death?”

“We know how they did it. The children were part necromancer. They had the instinctive ability already.” His eyes shone in the dark, grey as an oncoming raincloud.

“Yeah.” I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Not least because being this close to the prison cells made the shivers creeping up my spine a hundred times worse. I stepped away, the cold dampness of the corridor wall pressing against my back.

Vance pulled an object out of the air. Not a weapon. It looked like a spell—black and pointed, like your standard magic wand.

“Wake up,” he commanded, and activated the spell by pointing it directly at the prisoners. The flurry of power made the hairs rise on my arms, and the two men startled awake as suddenly as though he’d tipped a bucket of icy water on their heads.

As for Vance, even with his back turned to me, power radiated off him like lightning on water. The two prisoners cowered away from him. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to remain steady at his side.

“I am Lord Vance Colton, leader of the mages, and if you don’t give me the truth, I’ll know. Did you take two teenagers with you into Death?”

A pause. The guy’s mouth dropped open, while the second looked like he’d been hit by a hellhound’s fear spell. “Yes.”

“Who gave you the order?”

“A spirit. Fey.”

“Faeries can’t die,” said Vance.

“A half-faerie,” I said.

Vance barely glanced at me, but something in his stance sharpened. He knew… he must know I was holding back information.

“You took orders from a spirit? Ghosts cannot harm anyone. Yourselves, least of all. What did he offer you?”

“Let me guess,” I cut in. “Immortality. That’s what he offered you. Right?”

This time, Vance did look at me. But he didn’t speak to me. To the prisoners, he said, “Is that true?”

Two nods.

“And on whose orders? A faerie with an ash blade, right? Did you see him?” I couldn’t stop myself this time. Too many people had been hurt already. We needed to know the enemy. Now.

“The Lord of the Grey Vale.”

“A faerie lord,” said Vance. “What is his interest in humans?”

Good question. Most faeries didn’t care, not even if they had half-blood children.

“He doesn’t care for humans,” said the man. “Only—our world. Our energy. What he said made no sense. He appeared over the veil…”

In Death?
I stared at him, unable to hide my shock. Faeries—a faerie who could walk into
Death?
I supposed it was an incorporeal world, and faeries weren’t great at obeying the human laws of metaphysics, but…

“Tell me his name,” Vance commanded, apparently disregarding this.

“Velkas. You can’t reach him. He walks wherever he likes. He’s probably here right now. You’ll be next, now you know his name.”

“I see.” Vance made a gesture as if to swat a fly. The two men fell, blood spurting from their arms and chests as though sliced by an invisible sword.

“Holy shit!” I stumbled back. I’ll never get used to the shock when you watch a life taken right in front of you. Especially when you’re standing by the person who pulled the metaphorical trigger. “They might have had more to say.”

“They don’t now.”

Wow. That was cold. I stared at the two men, but Vance made no move to take the bodies from the cell. He tossed the keys to the ground with a disinterested expression.

“So much for an interrogation.” I was curious as hell what he might have witnessed in the cemetery, but I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t allow him his own secrets. Still, a morbid curiosity persisted. Everyone feared something, but Vance Colton hadn’t batted an eyelid at the creepy factory. Why should a graveyard be any different? What had he seen? Was that why he’d gone into scary-ass mage mode?

“They were no use to us.” He ran a handkerchief down his blade. “You’re shaking.”

“You killed two people in front of me,” I spluttered. “You’re—you’re the leader of the mages. You’re supposed to stand for justice, not senseless slaughter.” I’d expected him to give them a trial at the very least.

“That
was
justice,” he said, his voice chillingly low. “This is a dangerous world we live in.”

“No shit. I’m the one who told
you
that.” I knew I was overreacting. I was a killer. I worked with killers. But I’d never seen a
human
react so casually to taking lives. I’d only seen one person do that.
His
face flashed before my eyes again, fresh from where I’d seen him behind the veil. “I don’t kill people,” I said loudly, willing the vision to go away. “I’ve never killed a human. Or a half-blood faerie, come to that.” Sure, if they deserved it…and yeah, those two guys had.

Didn’t mean the image of chilling calmness on Vance’s face would go away so easily.

“I wouldn’t make restrictions. You never know what you might have to do.” He stepped back. “We’re done here.”

“What did you see?” I couldn’t help it: the words burst out of me. “The veil showed you something—right?”

“Does that mean you’re going to share what
you
saw?”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Even now, the words wouldn’t come.

“The veil is thinner,” he said, apparently taking my silence as an answer. “At certain points on the Ley Line, it clearly carries an imprint. The necromancers say places that have seen a lot of death carry the memory with them, usually visible only to those with spirit sight.”

“So… someone’s screwing with the energies of all three realms.”

“Death and Faerie,” said the Mage Lord. “Both are stronger close to the Ley Line.”

Damn. He was smart. He’d already come to the same conclusions as me with none of the knowledge I had. At this rate…

“That may be,” I said, “but neither of
us
can cross over, and the necromancer leader’s out for the count. We’ll have to ask one of the others to do it.”

“Crossing over nearly killed their leader,” he said. “But we know who the enemy is now, and they’re in
this
realm.”

His sharp eyes told me his intentions.

“The faerie… the one the half-blood mentioned,” I said. “You heard what the Lady of the Tree said. He’s promising them their home back. As to how they plan to open the way through… no idea. I thought it was impossible.”

Like faeries walking into Death.

The impossible had become everyday. No denying it. There was no more running. Not for me. I had to face the faeries head-on, no matter what it took. Even if it meant my death. Even if it meant going back.

The thought made violent shivers rack my body. Was I strong enough to survive the faeries a second time? I’d be a fool to assume otherwise. Those kids needed me. And yet…

Velkas. He walks wherever he likes.

“What is it?” said Vance sharply as I backed away, fetching up against the closed door.

“I—I need to check on Isabel. I got a bad feeling.”

Really bad. Paranoia, I hoped, but given the way things were going…maybe not. She wasn’t at home, but in hospital. Which wasn’t warded like our house was.

“You’re not leaving alone again.”

“The faeries showed up at my house twice already. Isabel’s in hospital and I—”

Vance’s phone rang. He made an impatient noise, and another as I gave him a pleading look. His hand closed on my arm, and we disappeared.

He’d gone before I could turn around. I cursed when I saw he’d left me on my own road.
Should have asked him to take me to the hospital instead.

But the wards outside our house, normally bright, had gone dull. Blue smoke spun around me, and I pulled out my sword, running through the garden.

“Your friend isn’t here,” whispered a voice.

A long, spindly faerie uncoiled itself from the overhang above the front door.

“She shouldn’t have opted to go to a mortal hospital with us here.”

“What the hell did you do to her?”

No. Not her. Please.

“My master needs the skills of a witch to protect himself when we pierce the veil.”

No. Shit. Not Isabel.

“So that’s your plan,” I said, my voice oddly calm. “Open the doors to Faerie and the afterlife at the same time. Didn’t millions of humans die twenty years ago when the same happened?”

“That is not my concern.”

“I thought not. Did—” I glanced up at the window, but couldn’t see anyone behind the doors.

“Your other friends aren’t here,” he said. “Pity they didn’t show up before you did.”

“You bastard.”

I considered asking what he’d done to Erwin. Hopefully the idiot piskie had hidden itself away. Nobody would die on my account. Especially not Isabel.

The cost of keeping my past quiet wasn’t worth her life.

An icy calm settled over me, and I stabbed the faerie through the neck. Blood poured out in a fountain, soaking into the doormat. The faerie choked on a laugh, causing more blood to bubble from its ruined throat.

Then it gave one final cough and its head collapsed onto its chest.

I wanted to scream, cry, and slay every faerie in sight—for all the good it’d do. Drawing in a breath, I moved away from the porch. I needed direction.

I needed Vance. I needed to tell him the truth. But once the truth came out, there was no going back.

With shaking hands, I dialled Vance’s number. “Vance—”

“They’re targeting my family.”

I gripped the phone hard. “What?”

“They took my cousin.”

“Shit. They took her, too. Isabel. They—they’re using her in their spell.”

And we had no plan. Nothing. Apart from our own strengths. Us against Faerie.

I took a deep breath. “You’re going to have to trust me, but I think I can get us over the boundary to Faerie. I’m just not so sure I can get us back.”

A long pause. Then: “I’m coming.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Vance appeared at my side in a dramatic swirl of magic I’d have made fun of if not for the look on his face. The storm kicked up by his arrival lifted the hair from my head and tugged at my clothes. His eyes were narrowed, his ordinarily combed hair dishevelled, his mouth an angry line. He didn’t even react to the dead faerie on the porch.

“He said they needed her to protect them when they open the veil.” My voice came out calm, numbed by the iciness in my veins, but it wouldn’t last. Either I’d break, or I’d kill whoever stood in my way. I couldn’t afford not to bet on the latter.

Vance looked as though he wanted to stab the already-dead faerie, but he didn’t move.

“They’ll do it where the invasion started,” I said. “They’ll open the veil. Do you know where it is?”

A nod. He turned to me again, another sharp blade of magic cutting the air. What happened when he lost control? Did he unleash a wild tornado and tear up everything in sight?

“You might want to tone that down.” I regretted speaking when his eyes, stormy grey, looked into mine.

“You promised me the truth.”

I raised my palms. “I’ll hide nothing from you, but to be honest, you’re freaking me out. If you promise you won’t kill me for this, I’ll tell you.”

Or arrest me.
We were past that now. I’d mow even the Mage Lord down if it brought me closer to Isabel.

Vance stepped towards me. His cloak swirled around his ankles, but the breeze died down. I hadn’t even realised I was shivering so hard. I forced my hands to stay at my sides so he wouldn’t see me shaking. He had my life in his hands now.